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Horace Slughorn
Horace E. F. Slughorn (b. between 1881 and 1921) was a pure-blood wizard, the Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was Potions Professor for over fifty years and Head of Slytherin before retiring in 1981. He was a friend and colleague of Albus Dumbledore, who convinced him to return to the post in 1996. Dumbledore enlisted the help of Harry Potter to accomplish this, together with the help of Slughorn's own fond memories of Harry's mother. After retrieving a memroy from Slughorn, it became apparent to both Harry and Dumbledore that a young Tom Riddle had used information he finessed from Slughorn to achieve immortality. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Slughorn sided with the defenders of Hogwarts and engaged his former pupil in a duel. Information *Born: Between summer, 1881 and 1921 *Blood Status: Pure-blood *Marital Status: Single *Also Known As: Old Sluggy (by Cormac McLaggen and Hermione Granger) *Titles: **Professor **Potions Master **Head of House *Species: Human *Gender: Male *Hair Color: Bald *Eye Color: Gooseberry *Skin Color: Light *Occupation: **Potions Master at Hogwarts (1920s - 1981, 1996 - Unknown) **Head of Slytherin House (Unknown - 1981, 1997 - Unknown) *House: Slytherin Family Members *Slughorn family Physical Appearance Slughorn is described as being an enormously fat, bald, old man. He is short with an immense belly, so large that the buttons on his waistcoat usually threaten to burst off. His round stomach is usually said to precede him when he enters rooms, and when he stands the top of his head barely reaches Albus Dumbledore's chin. His girth is seen to take up most of the compartment of the Hogwarts Express and occupy at least a quarter of Honeydukes Sweet Shop. He is described as having a shiny pate, prominent, gooseberry colored eyes, and an enormous, silver, walrus-like mustache. In his youth, his mustache was gingery blond and his hair was thick and straw colored. He has pudgy hands, fat thumbs, and a vast forehead, as well as highly polished buttons on his maroon velvet jacket that he wore over his lilac silk pajamas. Slughorn has a particular liking of lavish, old-fashioned clothes: waistcoats with gold buttons during the day and luxurious velvet smoking jackets when at home. In one particular trip to Hogsmeade, he wore an enormous furry hat and an overcoat with matching fur collar and clutched a large bag of crystallized pineapple. When he duelled Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts he wore an emerald-green pair of silk pajamas. He claims to suffer from old age, fatigue, rheumatism and a weak chest. According to Harry, he seems remarkably unabashed for someone who he just saw pretending to be an armchair. However, he is still sufficiently agile to turn himself into an armchair and create a scene of chaos at short notice when he is trying to avoid unwelcome visitors, and managed to live on the run from Voldemort moving house every couple of weeks (including his grand piano). He has a liking for embroidered clothing, with gold colored buttons and plenty of velvet. His comforts include soft chairs and footstools, drinks and books, boxes of chocolates and plump cushions, all of which clutter the room he met Harry in. His largeness fits his personality: he is jolly and genial, bustling around, twiddling the ends of his walrus mustache, and puffing out his massive belly. He sometimes wore a silver pocket watch. Personality and Traits Horace Slughorn was described as having a bumbling, jovial sort of personality. He was rather vain and quite fond of food, especially crystallized pineapple. Despite being a relatively good-natured person, he only had eyes for people who he thought had talent, would go far in life, and thus give him helpful connections and be able to influence or gain benefits from them. Thus, while he invited other students to his "Slug Club," he had a tendency to rudely ignore people like Ronald Weasley because he didn't view them as important, talented, or famous enough to warrant his attention. Slughorn is also a bit of a hypocrite, as he told Harry he believed teachers should not have favorites but then proceeded to say that Harry's mother, Lily Evans, was one of his. Shortly after this encounter, Dumbledore told Harry that in fact, while Slughorn was a teacher, he formed a group of his favorite students with him at the center in order to forge connections, make introductions, and always reap some sort of benefit from them. In addition, he says he isn't prejudiced against Muggle-born students, but seemed surprised that Harry said Hermione Granger was the best in his year; despite this, he asserts that Lily was one of the most talented students he ever taught, and frequently compares Harry's talent to hers in very favorable terms. It seems Slughorn feels that pure-blood students usually displayed the best talent but was happy to bring Muggle-borns or half-bloods into his inner circle if he thought they were talented or gifted enough. Compared to Snape, Slughorn's teaching methods were more friendly, excitable and interactive, not unlike how a good-natured laboratory professor conducts lessons. He also appears to know how to motivate students for his subject; in his first Potions lesson since coming out of retirement, he encouraged his students to concoct for him the Draught of Living Death with a ready bottle of Felix Felicis as reward to the student who does best. He also exhibited no qualms at using his school connections to procure useful assets for his own benefit, as seen when he convinced Pomona Sprout to provide him with plant samples as potion ingredients fresh from the Hogwarts Greenhouses, or when he took advantage of Hagrid's attendant despair to retrieve some of Aragog's prized venom, along with the stocks of unicorn hair Hagrid had inside his cabin. Slughorn generally displayed the more positive traits of Slytherin, such as ambition. He never wished to be famous himself; instead, he preferred to help others become famous, which, if successful, gained him influence and/or benefits from them, such as being able to recommend the next junior member of the Goblin Liaison Office, free Quidditch tickets or a box of his favorite crystallized pineapple. Slughorn has evident self-centerdness; he mentioned that all the mead he brought is quite safe as he had a house-elf drink some from each bottle to ensure it was not poisoned. This revelation disquieted Harry, as it showed that Slughorn saw nothing wrong with risking a house-elf's life to protect his own. Although, there is the possibility Slughorn possessed an antidote to give the house-elf if poison was present in the drink. Slughorn was keen to make evermore connections, and in his post as teacher, made a habit of having regular meetings with students who were either famous (Harry Potter), related to famous people (Cormac McLaggen), or gifted or talented in one way or another (i.e. Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley). Known as "the Slug Club," this group of students were constantly being invited to Slughorn's office for dinner and parties. Students that he did not consider to be "high-fliers," such as Arthur Weasley, and later his son Ron, were simply ignored. However, those with negative affiliations, such as Draco Malfoy, due to his father being a Death Eater, were not invited to the club meetings either. Slughorn's personality, in many ways, contradicted the "evil Slytherin" stereotype held by many students of the other Houses, Gryffindors in particular. He was not a bad person, and didn't seem to hold any real prejudice against Muggle-born witches and wizards. While he thought pure-bloods generally had more wizarding talent, he was always happy to meet and teach Muggle-borns and half-bloods who displayed great potential. He was, however, self-serving enough to favor students of status or talent, largely for the purpose of benefiting from his connection to them in the future. He was horribly guilt-ridden about the information he gave to Tom Riddle about Horcruxes, and crudely edited his memory of the event to prevent anyone finding out what he had done, as much as to relieve his own guilty feelings. Though Albus Dumbledore would undoubtedly have tried in earnest to convey the importance of the contents of the original memory, Slughorn stubbornly refused to give it up till 1997. He was also horrified at his accidental poisoning of Ron Weasley and later came to visit him in the hospital. Despite his ambition, Slughorn knew where to draw his personal boundaries. His tendency to ally himself with powerful, talented, and important people never blinded him to his moral values, and thus, he was never tempted to join forces with Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Unlike Peter Pettigrew, Dolores Umbridge and others who were keen to surround themselves with big people, he was not one to side with whoever was winning. Slughorn knew where his loyalties lay, and he fought against Lord Voldemort head on during the final battle. During the final battle it was initially thought that Slughorn fled in cowardice with the other Slytherins, but he had actually only left to round up reinforcements and returned to the battle. This, along with the fact that he fearlessly stood up to Voldemort himself, showed that he was a courageous man. He was also strong willed and was able to master Occlumency, a rare ability that required a strong mind. Magical Abilities and Skills *Occlumency *Memory modification *Transfiguration *Duelling *Potioneer *Non-verbal magic *Charms *Defense Against the Dark Arts *Dark Arts knowledge Possessions *Wand *Hourglass *Dragon-skin briefcase *Potion-making kit *Piano Category:Battle of Hogwarts participants Category:British individuals Category:Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore's private lessons Category:Heads of House Category:Hogwarts employees Category:Hogwarts students Category:Holyhead Harpies supporters Category:Males Category:Occlumens Category:Order of the Phoenix allies Category:Ousting of Severus Snape participants Category:Potioneers Category:Professors Category:Pure-bloods Category:Slug Club Category:Slytherins Category:Wizards Category:Individuals who knew about Horcruxes